Tuesday, December 6, 2016


AeroVironment Selected By General Motors For New Bolt EV Charging
Monrovia, California-based AeroVironment, which develops both unmanned aerial vehicles and electric vehicle charging stations, has scored a win with General Motors. The company said on Tuesday afternoon that its EVSE-RS charging station has been selected as the official home charging station for GM's new 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV. The company says its charger charges the EV up to 5 times faster than a standard cordset for the vehicle. As a result of the selection, those EVSE-RS charging stations ge (More info...)
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Harman Backs Heads Up Display Maker Navdy
Automotive audio and entertainment systems maker Harman, which has a significant number of its businesses in Southern California, has made a strategic investment in Navdy, a developer of after-market, heads-up and augmented reality devices for the automotive market. Size of the investment was not announced. Navdy is also backed by local investors Upfront Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures, along with Eniac Ventures, Formation8, Promus Ventures, and others.
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Napkin Finance Targets Life Events With Financial Advice
Los Angeles-based Napkin Finance, the startup which is distilling a lot of difficult-to-understand, but important, financial topics onto simple, "napkin"-like, one page graphical explanations, has made an expansion to its site to cover life events. The startup has started organizing its napkins into those most relevant for big life events, such as buying a house, getting married, having a baby, etc. Napkin Finance has a huge library of "napkins" which distill the basics of investments, debt, int (More info...)
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Heal Raises $14.8M, Names Richard Gephardt To Board
Santa Monica-based Heal, the startup which provides on-demand, doctor house calls to patients, has raised $14.8M in a Series B funding, and added former House Majority and Minority Leader and U.S. Presidential Candidate, Richard Gephardt, to its board of directors. The Series B funding came from Fidelity Management and Research Company. According to Heal, the new funding will help it expand its geographical footprint, broaden the range of medical services it offers and increase patient reach. T (More info...)
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GE Spins Out New Startup, Menlo Micro, In Irvine, With $18.7M In Funding
GE Ventures, the venture capital arm of GE, says it has spun out a new startup in Irvine called Menlo Micro. The spinout of GE's Global Research Center is focused on electronic switching technology. As part of the spinout, Menlo Micro has raised $18.7M in a funding round, which came from Microsemi, Corning, Paladin Capital Group, and GE Ventures. Menlo Micro will be led by CEO Russ Garcia. The company said it is using advanced material science to offer up power handling in the kilowatts range, a (More info...)
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PSI Services Acquires Computer Assisted Testing Services
Burbank-based PSI Services, which provides professional testing services, said today that it has acquired Computer Assisted Testing Services (CATS). Financial terms of the buy were not announced. CATS provides computer-based examinations for organizations in the licensing and certification testing area. PSI said the acquisition will help it expand in the federal and certification market segments. PSI Services is led by President and CEO Steve Tapp.
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Ingram Micro Acquired By HNA Group In $6 Billion Deal
Irvine-based Ingram Micro and Chinese company HNA Group said this morning that the $6 billion acquisition of Ingram Micro by HNA Group's subsidiary, Tianjian Tianhai Investment Company, Ltd., has completed. Tianjin paid $38.90 per share in cash for Ingram Micro. The deal had been announced earlier. Ingram Micro will stop trading on the New York Stock Exchange before the market opens today. The two said that Ingram Micro will remain headquartered in Irvine, California and will continue to be led (More info...)
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OpenX Names CFO, Chief People Officer
Los Angeles-based programmatic advertising marketplace operator OpenX announced this morning that it has made two major executive hires, to support growth at the company. OpenX said it has named Eric W. Muhlheim as its new Chief Financial Officer, and named Laura Revenko as its Chief People Officer. Mulheim most recently was CFO of Helix Education, and also served at Altius Education and The Walt Disney Company, where the company said he founded the Disney English division, helped develop Disney (More info...)
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